Skip to main content

Review of Buckets by University of Northampton BA Actors at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The second of the two University of Northampton shows performed in the Royal for 2022 by the BA Actors was Buckets by Adam Barnard, and it was a much more entertaining, cleaner and better-performed show than The Gut Girls the day before.

Erin Jones
Barnard’s Buckets takes the form of thirty-three interconnected scenes revolving around the loose link of “buckets” be they sick buckets, bucket lists or a bit of charity bucket shaking, the scenes weave and meander with occasionally recurring characters and situations. It is very similar to other plays performed by the BA Actors of the past, including perhaps most obviously Love + Information, and as with such a format, it is also perfect for the University actors to perform.

Sam Day
It is a delightfully delivered play, with strong performances and characterisation across the board from all the performers. I particular liked Erin Jones’ loving mother, tasked with dealing with the eventual death of her daughter, and it was great to have this poignant character crossover into the much more comedic “Kiss Me” sequences, which saw Sam Day’s character in constant attempts to get ladies to kiss him. Hugely entertaining. Owain Hedd in several scenes makes a great impact, showing the best quality in comedy situations and he also has a distinctive look which might take him far.

Carly May
The contrast in scenes was excellent, weaving from full comedy to sadness and each of the scenes was really well balanced lengthwise, never outstaying their welcome. One particular scene towards the end was immensely powerful as Carly May’s character filmed on her phone on a train platform what was likely to be her final moments, were it not for the arrival Neyha Solanki as a would-be thief. While there was a huge power in the poignancy of this scene, writer Barnard also adds much subtle humour and May and Solanki are excellent in it.

Carly May
The play takes place on a set of playground equipment and a park bench and the simple set offers its pros and cons, slightly irritating is the constant head ducking under the slide for the performers, particularly for the ever-present observer and scene changer Crystal Liu. It might seem churlish to comment on this, but it interferes with the swift scene changing, and I felt, a better position of the set might have lessened this impact. The set does however provide several perfect backdrops for each of the short scenes.

However, whatever criticism is placed on Buckets, it is minor, as this is very much the BA Actors of Northampton, doing what they do best, nice stage presence, confident performances and the effective telling of a clever and very entertaining play. Excellent stuff.

Entertaining and well performed, this is every bit the BA Actors at their best.
⭐⭐⭐⭐½

Performance reviewed: Friday 13th May 2022 at the Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton.
Buckets ran at Royal & Derngate until Saturday 14th May 2022.

Buckets was presented by final year actors at the University of Northampton

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Here & Now at Milton Keynes Theatre

During the late 90s and early 2000s, the dance-pop group Steps was a mighty presence in the British charts. They accumulated two number-one albums in the UK and 14 consecutive UK top-5 singles, including two number ones. They were juggernauts of lightweight pop. It is perhaps a surprise that it took until 2024 for a musical to be based on their hits. Now, writer Shaun Kitchener brings enough campness to keep Alan Carr and Julian Clary in work for decades. Here & Now , the show everyone was waiting for, is at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a UK tour. So, the question is: has it been worth the wait? Here & Now is, fundamentally, a ridiculous concept that should not work. Set in a supermarket, yes, a supermarket, our eclectic cast of characters go through the typical dramas of many a musical as love and drama unfold against a backdrop of jukebox music. It should never work, but it does, extremely well in fact. A huge amount of the success here has to go to writer Shaun Kitchene...
Read more

Review of Blood Brothers at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

A theatre in the east midlands, a thousand people stand applauding and cheering towards a stage where fourteen people stand. There on the stage, they bow, and bow, an inordinate number of times. They depart after a time and the lights come up over the capacity audience. So did you hear the story of the Blood Brothers show, how people flocked and came to see them play? Did you never hear about how we came to be, standing applauding the brightly lit stage this November day? Come judge for yourselves how this night did come to be. Blood Brothers was a significant show for me back in 2014, being the first musical that I saw live. Hiding up in the upper circle of the Derngate back then, not really sure what to expect, it was it turned out perhaps the perfect show to graduate me from play to musical that I could choose as Willy Russell's gritty and solid story is as confident as a straight play that perhaps any musical is. So strong is the story of the Johnstone's twins, tha...
Read more

Review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Milton Keynes Theatre

There have been numerous productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's groundbreaking musical since it first appeared in 1968 and opened in the West End in 1973. One might wonder if there is still room for another tour. However, judging by the packed audience in Milton Keynes Theatre for the opening night of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , much interest remains for this show. Also, with this production first seen at The London Palladium in June 2019, and with a few production elements altered, Joseph still has, after all those years, the room to change and evolve. However, the question is, does this change help or hinder the show's history? For those unfamiliar with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, it tells the story of Joseph, Jacob's favourite son, in a lighthearted and musical style that jumps between various genres. Joseph's brothers are somewhat envious of him, leading to them selling him into slavery to an Egyptian nobleman. As for ...
Read more